LANDSCAPE LED DESIGN: RE-CONNECTING TO THE LANDSCAPE

Landscape specialist Ruth Childs introduced the principle of Landscape Led Design in SCAPE. She explains that the development of an area can follow the natural processes to maximise benefits and minimise harm.

Ruth Childs works at the South Downs National Park Authority. Her role involves advising upon new development plans with Landscape Led Design forming the basis of her work. As Ruth explains, “The landscape is the living result of a long-term interplay of relationships between people, nature and the changing fortunes of communities.”

In new developments, balancing change with the capacity of existing landscapes is a challenge. In every landscape, these relationships will determine how a landscape comes together to create a distinctive place. Sensitive landscapes often demonstrate a coherence in these relationships in space and through time. Ruth provides some examples from her current role in the South Downs National Park.

Examples

Over the past 30 or more years, there has been a tendency to channel excess rainwater into pipes and drain it off into a pond for storage. The landscape can do so much more when it comes to understanding natural processes. Excess rainwater can be cleaned, stored and retained within the soil. Applying the principles of Sustainable Drainage and nature-based solutions is beginning to change the way we design new places.

The ‘spring line villages’ in the South Downs is a good example. In an area where springs are located along a geological fault line in the subsurface, a line of settlements has evolved. In some cases, a settlement consisted of a farm and in others a village or town. They owe their existence and development to those springs where settlement has a strong relationship to geology and water. The way they developed depended on several factors, such as accessibility and the entrepreneurial spirit of people who lived near them. Together they now form characteristic landscape features that have significant tourism value.

In all cultural landscapes, ownership plays a key role in landscape change and this has enabled a unique quality to evolve. Designed landscapes and large estates have a longevity and coherence in management and change is often slow. A large woodland, owned by a family for centuries, has been managed and cared for as a single entity over time. Childs says: “In the UK, some companies may buy up woodlands with the intention of selling them off in small portions or lots. This can potentially lead to much more rapid change. There is always the potential risk that a lack of knowledge and coherent management can alter the character of woodlands and their ability to function coherently for wildlife.”

Knowing the context

Before any intervention in an area is planned and implemented, the landscape must be properly understood. Detailed evidence should be collected about the origin of the landscape and how it works. Ruth says: “Understanding a landscape from the start provides many opportunities to integrate solutions through positive design. You don’t automatically seek an engineered solution. Buildings and other new elements in the landscape, such as roads, woodland, trees can be designed to fit into existing character and be defined by their patterns. Technical interventions, such as surface water pipes or drainage channels, should only be planned as necessary additions.”

Before you do that, however, it is important to invest in obtaining a thorough knowledge of the area. Childs explains: “Obtaining that knowledge is vital to protect vulnerable areas. If you don’t know what you have, you can’t protect it. Project developers have historically worked up ideas for new developments, first commissioning surveys covering topics such as ecology, landscape, water management and architecture later in the design process. Each of these are often done in isolation and proposals assessed post-design and determined in landscape or ecology terms by understanding effects. However, at the South Downs, new policies in the Local Plan are turning this on its head, requiring applicants to take a landscape-led approach to design. This entails asking for evidence up-front to help assess impacts of a scheme and directly inform their design. We are seeking a big change in the mindset of developers.”

Climate-based adaptation and water

SCAPE focuses on climate-based adaptations with an emphasis on water systems. The pilot projects are all different, but the European Landscape Convention and Landscape Led Design connects them. All pilot projects start by building up a thorough knowledge of the landscape. The starting point is different in each case. Middelburg focuses on water management and topography; Stene focuses on the character of the area on the outskirts of the city; while Brighton and Hove focuses on a multitude of small adjustments that will gradually restore the coherence of the landscape and provide multiple benefits.

In Great Britain, National Parks are ‘protected landscapes’. In many places in Europe, National Parks are entirely state owned, while in the UK, much of the land within National Parks is owned by private landowners. Towns are also located within National Parks in the UK, such as Lewes and Petersfield in the South Downs National Park. National Parks in the UK are Government-funded and overseen by National Park Authorities who have the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the area, as well as promoting opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the National Park by the public. They also have a duty to seek to foster the social and economic wellbeing of the local communities within the National Park in pursuit of their purposes.

The 15 national parks in England, Wales and Scotland occupy around 7% of the surface area of Great Britain.